Pangolins

Right now, in the amazing moment that to us counts as the present, we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed.
~Elizabeth Kolbert

When I took the Harry Potter (Pottermore) "Discover Your Patronus" quiz, they said my patronus was an anteater. My response was basically "?" but maybe they were talking about scaly anteaters, also known as pangolins. In which case, I can see that...aren't they cool? The bad news: all species of pangolin are endangered.

Manis temminckii
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
Photo credit to Maria Diekmann of Rare and Endangered Species Trust

Four feet, wings, and fins
by Mrs. A. E. Anderson Maskell
from Internet Archive Book Images

Pangolin (II)
Steve Loya

Manis temminckii
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
Photo credit to Tikki Hywood Trust

Curl
by Esther Simpson

A long tailed manis (scaly ant-eater) standing on a rock, etching
Wellcome Images, operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom

Manis tetradactyla
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
Photo credit to Rod Cassidy / Sangha Lodge

Pangolin
by Brian Dewey